Blog from South Africa – Thomas Anders

Captain of Ireland U15s in 2011, Tom Anders writes from South Africa…

Hi everybody in Ireland! This is the first blog entry on this year’s trip, which so far has been fantastic. Sorry you haven’t heard from us sooner but we’ve been having too much fun.

We left Ireland on the 9th of January for a series of three flights spanning 16 hours so you could imagine how tired we were when we arrived! That wasn’t a problem, however, as we got to work straight away, and were involved in a 1st team net session within two hours of arriving on campus. The facilities here at Muir College are excellent with 6 good cricket nets, 2 swimming pools, 4 of cricket fields and a fully-functioning gym (which we’ve been making full use of). So far there have been no matches, only a number of middle practices and nets but we are all raring to go for our first match on Saturday. The only blip so far (on otherwise spotless radar) was Benn pulling a muscle in his back. Fingers crossed he gets better quickly.

So far on this trip I think we have unanimously agreed that the highlight has been our trip down the coast to Jeffries Bay. Last weekend we were taken, very generously and kindly, by Mr. Wahl (a teacher here) and his parents. There, we swam in some rather large ocean waves with Mr. Wahl’s dad and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The slight dis-advantage was that all that sea water washed off our sun protection….horrific sun burn! We acquired some very pink backs and shoulders. Needless to say the shower was a painful place for the next few days!

Last night we attended a ‘social’ with the sister school here in Uitenhage, Riebek College. It was basically a concert followed with a dance. Jack, Mick and I all danced while Benn’s back seemed to be playing tricks on him. We all really enjoyed ourselves as we have done all tour. We’re really looking forward to getting stuck into some South African cricket at the weekend with a big game for the first team against main-rivals St. Andrew’s from Grahamstown. I was lucky enough to be included in the team and cannot wait!

I will hopefully blog again soon with more good news to tell,

Thomas Anders

Phoenix CC

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